An exploration of knowledge and practice of patient handling among undergraduate occupational therapy students

Abstract

While occupational therapy students in Ireland receive training in safe patient handling they appear to have limited knowledge of best practice and experience difficulties in applying their learning to clinical situations. There is an urgent need to consider the effectiveness of current educational strategies in this area. Implications for Rehabilitation Safe patient handling is a key component in preventing musculoskeletal injury among rehabilitation professionals The extent to which pre-professional training prepares rehabilitation professionals to practice safe patient handling is unclear Occupational therapy students in this study had limited knowledge of safe patient handling and had difficulty applying their learning to clinical practice Alternative education models are required to support development of safe patient handling skills. Educators may wish to consider how safe patient handling can be embedded across curricula to avoid the challenges of once off instruction and massed practice.

An exploration of movement and handling by physiotherapists in a rehabilitation setting: A motion analysis study

“…However, physiotherapist behaviour may change when being directly observed in this manner.Clinical Reasoning or Personal PreferencesCorrect principles of moving and handling is introduced to physiotherapy students at university. A disconnect between what is taught at university and what is used in practice has been identified(Kneafsey et al 2012;Mc Grath et al 2015). Unsafe moving and handling practices were found to occur in clinical settings byKneafsy et al (2012) andMcGrath et al (2015), with students often not challenging the qualified staff(Kneafsey et al 2012).…”